UNICEF releases groundbreaking report card on child protection

Published October 14th, 2009 - 14:33 GMT

While progress is being made in reducing some
violations of children’s rights, not enough is yet known about the extent

While progress is being made in reducing someviolations of children’s rights, not enough is yet known about the extentof abuses against children. Violence and exploitation remain a harshreality in the lives of many children around the world.

Millions of boys and girls around the world are subject to trafficking, arewithout parental care, or lack documentation they need to attend school andaccess basic health care. Millions more are forced to work under harmfulconditions, while others face violence or abuse in their homes, in theirschools, in their communities, in institutions or while in detention, oftenfrom the adult entrusted with their care.

These issues are reviewed in a new UNICEF report -- “Progress for Children:A Report Card on Child Protection,” -- released by UNICEF ExecutiveDirector Ann M. Veneman in Tokyo today.

Children in such circumstances are experiencing fundamental infringementsof their human rights, and suffering physical and psychological harm thathas wide-reaching and sometimes irreparable effects.

“A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into earlymarriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights,” saidVeneman. “Understanding the extent of abuses of children’s rights is afirst step to building an environment where children are protected and havethe opportunity to reach their full potential.”

The report gathers together for the first time data on a range of issuesthat impact on children, including sexual abuse and trafficking, childmarriage, physical punishment of children, child labour, birthregistration, the harmful traditional practice of female genital cutting,and attitudes toward violence against women inside marriage.

Some abuses – such as sexual exploitation and trafficking – are usuallycommitted in conditions of secrecy and illegality, which makes collectionof accurate data challenging.

Where data are available, some progress is evident. For example, the datashows that in Bangladesh, Guinea and Nepal – three countries where childmarriage is prevalent – the median age of marriage is rising, although itis still below 18 years of age. The report also identifies a slow declinein female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in countries where such abuseis common.

Included in the report’s findings are:

· More than half the children in detention worldwide have not been tried or sentenced.

· In some parts of the world, the births of two out of three children were not registered in 2007. In Somalia and Liberia less than 5 per cent of births are registered. Birth registration is an important element in building a protective environment for children for a range of reasons, including that without a birth certificate they are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, trafficking and illegal adoption.

· More than 150 million children between 5 and 14 years of age are engaged in child labour. Child labour is often both a result and a source of poverty. It can compromise a child’s education and perpetuate the poverty that pushed them into the workforce.

· More than half of women and girls in developing countries think that wife-beating is acceptable and, younger women are as likely to justify wife-beating as older women. In most regions, neglecting the children is the most commonly cited justification for wife-beating.

“This report on harmful practices and abuse of children comes just sixweeks before the 20th Anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of theChild,” said Veneman. “The evidence of continuing harm and abuse mustinspire the world to greater effort to guarantee the rights of allchildren, everywhere.”